Apple, Eaton, Google, Wockhardt: Intellectual Property

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. won more than $290
million from Samsung Electronics Co. in a do-over damages trial
by relying on the same tactics it used in a 2012 victory -- and
a witness who jurors said tipped the balance in Apple’s favor.

After a weeklong trial in San Jose, California, the jury
restored most of the amount Nov. 21 that had been cut from a
$1.05 billion verdict in favor of the iPhone maker last year
over copying of technology used in smartphones.

Apple used the same lead lawyers, arguments and witnesses
for this trial as it did last year, with the exception of a new
damages expert to replace a witness who died. Jurors said after
the verdict that the new expert, Julie L. Davis, a Chicago-based
certified public accountant, provided clear evidence they could
use to arrive at their damages sum and was unflappable on the
stand.

“Ms. Davis was on it,” said jury forewoman Colleen Allen,
a former U.S. military medic who served a tour in Afghanistan
and now runs a mobile blood-collecting business. Davis was a
“superstar witness” who remained steady “even when she was
cross-examined,” Allen said in an interview.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh cut $410.5 million from the
first verdict in March, finding it was flawed because jurors
miscalculated the period that infringement occurred for 13
Samsung devices. In the retrial, Apple sought to restore $380
million of that amount.

On its own, the Nov. 21 verdict is the fifth-largest jury
award in the U.S. in 2013, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg. It’s the largest jury award this year in a patent
case. Total damages owed by Samsung now stand at $930 million.

Lauren Restuccia, a spokeswoman for Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung, said the company is disappointed with the
verdict, “which is based in large part on a patent that the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has recently deemed invalid,”
and would appeal.

The case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., 11-cv-01846, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
(San Jose).

For more patent news, click here.

Trade Secrets/Industrial Espionage

Eaton’s Bid for Reinstatement of Trade Secrets Case Rejected

Eaton Corp., the maker of components for aerospace markets,
lost its request for the reinstatement of its $1 billion trade
secrets case against some former employees and the lifting of
its $1.5 million sanction.

The Cleveland-based company had gone to the Mississippi
Supreme Court to appeal the 2011 dismissal of the case by that
state’s Hinds County Circuit Court.

In its suit, filed in 2004, Eaton accused five engineers of
stealing trade secrets and taking them to the company now known
as the Triumph Actuation Systems unit of Triumph Group Inc. of
Wayne, Pennsylvania. Triumph Actuation Systems, formerly Frisby
Aerospace, was also named as a defendant.

In dismissing the case, the trial court cited improprieties
by a former judge, a former lawyer and Eaton itself.

Eaton said in its filing with the state high court that its
claims were backed by federal bill of particulars that ran to
more than 50 pages. The claims were improperly dismissed by the
trial court as a sanction for fraud on the court, Eaton claims.

Eaton had secretly hired a lawyer with close ties to a
judge who presided over the earlier part of the litigation,
Bobby DeLaughter, who as a prosecutor successfully tried the
murderer of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. DeLaughter pleaded
guilty to federal obstruction-of-justice charges in 2009.

In its filings with the state supreme court, Eaton said a
ruling by DeLaughter later faulted by another judge actually was
favorable to the defendant in the suit, and that the defendant
suffered no prejudice to its case.

Eaton also argued that it didn’t commit fraud on the court
by hiring the attorney who previously had a close connection to
DeLaughter. The lawyer was retained for legitimate purposes and
did legitimate work, Eaton said in its filings.

In its Nov. 21 ruling, the Mississippi high court said the
lower court didn’t abuse its discretion in imposing monetary
sanctions and “the most severe sanction at its disposal --
dismissing with prejudice Eaton’s lawsuit.”

Misconduct by counsel for Eaton prejudiced both the
defendant and the administration of justice, the court said.

The organization has been the target of repeated takedown
requests by Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former U.S. Navy chaplain
now running as a Republican for a seat in Colorado’s
legislature. Klingenschmitt had claimed that Right Wing Watch
videos critical of him used portions of his own videos without
authorization.

The candidate sent out a Nov. 7 press statement accusing
Right Wing Watch of hate speech and saying that it “has been a
thorn in the side of countless Christian ministries for years,
quoting out of context ministers like James Dobson, Jerry
Falwell, Pat Robertson, and political leaders like Michele
Bachmann and Alan Keyes.”

In his statement, Klingenschmitt said that YouTube had
terminated Right Wing Watch’s account and that “the Bible says
pride comes before destruction. That’s a lesson for them, in how
the Internet works.”

Right Wing Watch said that even though Klingenschmitt loses
every challenge he makes with respect to its videos, he keeps
filing them.

Kamaron’s ‘Zecodex’ Mark Canceled, Business Standard Says

Wockhardt said that Gujarat-based Kamaron Laboratories
Ltd.’s “Zecodex” mark was confusingly similar to the “Zedex”
mark Wockhardt used for a cough syrup, the newspaper reported.

In its ruling, the board said that Kamaron should have
conducted a trademark search before filing an application and
that the company didn’t produce any evidence it had used the
“Zecodex” mark, according to the Business Standard.

Although Wockhardt had used “Zedex” since 1983, Kamaron
argued that the Mumbai company failed to oppose Kamaron’s 1996
trademark application for “Zecodes,” according to the
newspaper.

Strange Brewing Settles Dispute With Strange Brew, Post Says

Strange Brewing Co. of Denver, and Marlboro, Massachusetts-based Strange Brew Beer & Wine Making have reached an accord in
their trademark dispute, the companies said in a joint statement
reported by the Denver Post.

The Massachusetts-based company had complained that Strange
Brewing was infringing its trademark and threatened litigation,
according to the Post.

Fans of Strange Brewing held fundraisers to support the
brewery’s legal defense, the newspaper reported.

Although details of the settlement weren’t disclosed, the
Post reported that the Colorado brewery will be able to keep its
name.

Missouri’s Logo Letter Doesn’t Move School District, AP Says

Despite receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the
University of Missouri, Arkansas’s Green Forest School Board
said it won’t change its tiger head logo, the Associated Press
reported.

Counsel for the school district advised its board that
despite some similarities in the two logos, he didn’t believe
the district’s version infringed, the news service reported.

James Aronowitz, counsel for the Atlanta-based Collegiate
Licensing Co., said that the University of Missouri was made
aware of the school district’s logo and that it risked losing
the trademark if it didn’t enforce it, according to AP.

The university had previously asked the school district in
Bentonville, Arkansas, to change its similar-looking logo and
the district complied, AP reported.

King Group Seeks to Register ‘Stem Cell,’ Hindu Business Says

King Group’s King Multi-Tech Global unit is seeking to
register “stem cell” as a trademark in India, Hindu Business
Line reported.

The Ludhiana, India-based company, which has a medical
export business, has filed an application to cover multiple
variants of the name, according to the newspaper.

D.G. Shah, head of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, told
the newspaper that generic words shouldn’t be registered as
trademark because of the potential for misuse.